Marli

Shirkers dir. Sandi Tan (2018)

It’s female led, female created, female written comedy. Lisa McGee is honestly a comedy genius and a fantastic writer. She’s an award winning writer, both for television and her time at the National Theatre, and shame on me for not having heard of her sooner.

By female led, I mean that not only is the main character a girl, four of the five central characters are girls, and the majority of the roles are women. There are only four recurring male characters.

It trended on twitter at number 4 world wide during its first episode, and continued to trend in the UK after almost every episode. The finale has just aired and it’s 5th world wide.

It got a second season on the strength of and reaction to the first episode alone, they announced the renewal  before the second episode aired.

It’s got amazing ratings, 8.3 on imbd, 97% on google, and I am yet to see a review that isn’t positive.

(If, like me, you’re Norn Irish and stuck in England, it’s weirdly calming after a day of dealing with the fuckers)

There is no romance plot. Michelle is constantly trying to ride people, James briefly has someone into him, and Erin fancies a wee lad (played by Scorpius Malfoy), and at one point James and Erin fancy the same priest, and both Grandpa Joe and Aunt Sarah have brief flirtations with people, but none of these things are main plot points, the dynamic of the main characters is friendship and family, not romance.

I’m not going to spoil the last episode, but I truly believe it’s the best, most poignant episode of a comedy show since the end of Blackadder (the midseason finale of Brooklyn 99 season 5 almost ties but… I genuinely think this topped it).

Speaking of not spoiling anything, I won’t say who, but one of the main characters is gay, and they handled it… really well. For a show set in Derry in the 90s, the lack of homophobia is really refreshing (especially considering how much homophobia could have been there, considering the time and place). Lisa McGee made a choice to have characters actually preemptively call out other characters for homophobia.

It does not lose any sight of the historical setting. So much of the humour is Troubles-based, as in the very human reactions to what was happening, attitudes that are so real. The dangers and hardships are never played down (the end of the season, again, was stunning), the humour comes from how the characters contextualise what is happening. It’s very subtly dark comedy. A lot of the comedy isn’t that, but you can tell it was written by a Derry Girl herself. I watched a few episodes with the English housemates, and they didn’t laugh less than I did, but they laughed at entirely different moments.

It’s just damned clever, the comedy is damned clever.

The writing is wonderful, the characters are three-dimensional and human. The female characters are allowed to be flawed and fuck up and look bad and drink and swear and be weird and be strong and be hardasses; the male characters are allowed to be timid and caring and compassionate. I genuinely don’t remember the last time I saw a male character just… hold a baby. No remarks, no comments, no fear in the eyes, just a grandfather/father holding their wean.

It’s the only show I have ever watched alone that’s had me laughing out loud.

90s clothes and soundtrack.

Honestly just watch it for Sister Michael.

“I will stand up against all odds, just like a deformed tree on a hill. I will muster all of my stubbornness, my strength, my masculine aggression”